Search Results for: boy's room

Kid’s room’s can be a challenge for most mom’s. It can be expensive to redecorate a bedroom, for anyone. Nevermind a child that will probably outgrow the room in a year. Or the decor, for sure. So, when it became apparent Levi would need his room redone I set out to keep costs down and create something that could grow with him. A boy’s bedroom on a budget of…$150 or so. That’s all I was willing to spend. For new bedding, curtains, furniture…whatever. Obviously, I had to get creative!

The first trick was to agree on a paint color. He desperately wanted a bright blue. I desperately wanted neutral knowing full well that his tastes would change again. Compromise…neutral on 3 walls with a very cool focal wall in bright colors. It helped greatly that Dutch Boy paints have cool titles like Stone Arrowhead. Oh yeah baby…I could kiss Dutch Boy! On top of which…that stuff (Dutch Boy paint) covered those dark green/orange walls in 2 coats. 2 coats!

Use neutral colors on the walls to get the most longevity out of the room. Color can be placed in with fabric, stencils, and more.

A stenciled focal wall is a fun way to add personality in a temporary way!

Use a high-gloss paint in kids rooms to make it easy to clean!

I knew I needed to get rid of the giant bunk bed that was eating up the space in the bedroom but hesitated on what to replace it with. When I asked him what he wanted, he said a pallet bed. ?!? Well, okay! I can spend $8.00 on a couple of pallets. Worse case scenario is I need to buy a proper bed later on. And, the pallet bed looks fabulous with the wood on the wall! And it’s friendly on the budget!

Think out of the box when buying furniture! Paint an old dresser, stack pallet’s for a bed, take apart a garage sale bunk bed.

Painting furniture is the quickest way to get a “new” look.

Add new hardware, or wheels to old furniture to updated it even more!

Second trick was the budget. I had a bit of money in the blog budget, but not much. I needed to keep the costs under $150. So, we shopped the house and used as much as we could that was already in the room. We even used parts from the bunk bed. Creative lighting, inexpensive curtains, and creative storage ideas helped keep the budget at $120.00. I know…isn’t that great!

Before you buy…shop your house!

Hardware stores have great shop lights that look great in boy’s bedrooms!

dropcloths are a great, inexpensive fabric that kids can customize with Sharpies!

if you need curtain hardware…try piping from your hardware store!

Shopping the house found cubbies and various containers that fit in nicely into the squares . And that whale…oh golly, he’s cute!

cubbies, bins, and buckets can be found at garage sales…spray paint them a uniform color.

scour your dollar store for small baskets and bins for boys to stash their “special” stuff!

The dresser needs new knobs…it will happen. But, if I don’t take pictures when I can, the pictures might not happen! Do you see that ladder on the wall? It is a piece from the old bunk bed. Another repurpose! Eventually it will be filled with knick knacks. Did you ever notice that boy’s knicky knacky things are more rock and frog oriented then girl’s? When cleaning his room I would find a rock, or twig, or piece of leg. He repeatedly could tell me what it was from and why he needed it. Oh boy.

reuse old things in new ways.

old bunk beds have plenty of wood and parts that can be repurposed!

The focal wall has the fabulous Fish Scale stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils. It looks fabulous and gives Levi some color that he desperately wanted! Thanks to them for letting me try out their stencils! This girl is scared of stenciling! Like, pee my pants scared! I am the one that globs, or doesn’t keep it straight, or…something. With the level and sponge roller it was easy and looks great!!! I might have to change my mind about stenciling!

try a stencil in an easy pattern for your first time.

or…if you are brave…let your kid’s “draw” on the focal wall with Sharpies!

The wood behind the pallet bed…look closely!…it’s the slats from the bunk bed! Yep, I just rubbed some black stain on them to age them a bit and attached them to the wall. So cool! It gives the bed importance and keeps the room looking “manly”. Yes, “manliness” is important when you are a 10 year old boy’s bedroom!

pallets, lathe, planks are great touches for boy’s rooms and a great way to cover an otherwise boring wall! No need for art.

When I asked my readers what I should do with Levi’s bedroom I heard a few times…”a reading nook”. Other suggestions were a loft bed and storage. Well, we already discussed the reason for the pallet bed…budget. And the storage? What you don’t see is, along with this closet turned reading nook Levi has a full closet (which we use for toys) and a third closet we turned into the Nerf “bunker”. The closet you see above was being used for linens. He was more then happy to have those linens stored out of his room and the closet turned into something “proper” for a boy. I took the advice and turned it into a reading/DS nook.

if your boy’s room has a closet that they don’t use…turn it into a fun little reading space. Or, a Nerf bunker. Or, a gaming closet.

duct tape works great on the wall for “stripes”!

The cushion in it is a dog bed. If you need a cushion for something, before you spend the big bucks …look in the pet section! I spent $20 on this versus the $40 they wanted for the same things in the “people” department. Best part…the cover is washable.

The light is made from a funnel I purchased and a tractor supply store and light kit from IKEA.
The blue stripes are from duct tape. Yes, I’m obsessed with the stuff.
And his tooth pillow rounds out the nook.

Thank you for the suggestion! He freaked out a bit when he saw this space…he loved it!

I know I’m going to get a few questions about the bed lights. With good reason…they are fabulous! You can read all about them HERE. And each one cost about $12.00. Love that!

Levi is uber pleased with his room! He loves the colors, the bed, and mostly…the nook! Thank you for your suggestions and ideas…they helped make this space fun and practical!

After a weekend of smelling fumes and sore shoulders, the dining room makeover is finished far sooner then I expected! And I am so pleased! Considering how tight my budget was, I was a bit concerned that I was stretching my luck with expecting a complete transformation in this space.

But, with less than $100, I was able to remake my dining room into a space that really fits my personality. I definitely appreciated the power of paint to transform, and made use of a few simple do-it-yourself techniques and ideas to make the table and chairs look completely different.

Here is my dining room after it’s $86.66 Makeover…

This is what it was before, at it’s best….

I will be walking through this makeover over the next few weeks, ’cause you really won’t believe how simple and cheap some of these projects were. Why didn’t I do it sooner?

You CAN do these little projects to remodel your dining room…they are simple, inexpensive, and don’t take crazy tools! And even if you aren’t as quirky as me in style, you really WILL want to know how to do these… just pick a different fabric, color, or accessory and it can be your style. For cheap!

While this is not an exhaustive list of the places we’ve been featured, we wanted to include a place for you to interact with our favorite places. We are so thankful that each of these sites/brands liked what we do, and we are so excited to see what new opportunities come up that we can add to this list!

Cottages & Bungalows January 2013Cottages and Bungalows June 2013

The Kitchn

Nellie here. As I write this it is my boy’s 10th birthday. And if you follow my blog you’ve seen my boy. You’ve read his guest posts. And know that’s he a powder keg of energy, wit, and smarts. Makes a momma proud!!

And, I wanted to write something special…just for him. You know, a tear jerker. And then I was like…”who am I kidding? I don’t make people cry.” and also “Levi doesn’t read your blog, he won’t even know”.

So instead, I decided to repost my favorite post he has ever done. This is my favorite post on my entire blog from him. Ever. I will always cherish this post…it shows the humor, wit, patience, intelligence, and brattiness of Levi. And gosh darn I love that boy!

It is a reminder to me that allowing my children freedom to learn and grow in areas they want is important. To allow them to learn and experience the world for themselves is a priceless gift I can give them. Making everything perfect and amazing each and every day for them isn’t practical, possible, or wise. It’s in the mistakes, the picking themselves up, and the rough times that the most learning takes place. And, if you are lucky, sometimes learning happens in fun and creative ways too! But, don’t be afraid of both!

First thing…
This information is from “The Boy’s Book, How To Be the Best at Everything” by Dominique Enright and Guy Macdonald.

This will work on any chicken. If you want to do this you choose a chicken, you want to pick one that doesn’t really care about stuff. In my experience, it was a very crazy chicken. You want the chicken to know that you are the boss. Hold it so that it know’s you are the boss but don’t hurt it.

Lay it on it’s side and so the wing is tucked in. The side of it’s head is laying on the floor too.
Put your index finger against its beak. I read it as it works in the dirt probably better.
But, you put your index finger on its beak and you drag a one foot line from its beak and tell it a calm word so it doesn’t feel scared.
It will go into a trance but, to wake the chicken up all you have to do is raise your voice until it gets out of its trance and runs away.

If you don’t have a chicken ask someone to try it out on their chicken.
If you can’t get it out of it’s trance just buy it for supper.
Cause if you can’t get it out of it’s trance then they don’t have to live with a chicken that doesn’t really do anything.

This is the equipment I used, you might not need as much because the chicken I hypnotized was a wee bit nicer then I expected. What you’ll need is some boots ummm, gloves, a coat, snowpants, uhh protection goggles, ski mask, the hood for the coat, and if you want a mouthguard.

This is me holding the chicken to get it ready to flip it over.

This is the chicken when I put it in the trance, it wouldn’t move a muscle.

This is me poking it to see if it will get out of the trance.

I’m not sure if it will come out of it’s trance so I will have to call the place where I got the chicken to hypnotize tonight. And see if I have to buy it for supper tonight. I will tell you.

If you are a butcher you can use this so it calms down and then you can kill it.

Sincerely,

Levi (I found a green Lincoln!)

P.S. Every 100 comments Mom says is an extra dollar, so please comment.

P.P.S. please do nice comments

P.P.P.S. you are the best readers I’ve ever heard of. Cause you are the only readers I’ve ever heard of. O-tay! Bye!

Thanks so much Levi for sharing this useful tip! I bet there are lots of farmers out there that would love to know how to do this! And thanks to the family that let him borrow a chicken for hypnotizing! You are so brave!

Please leave Levi some comment luv to let him know you think his first post was oh so awesome!

Or if you simply enjoyed it :).

Or if you are a butcher.

Yep, you all only wish you were me :)

UPDATE: In response to some concerned comments…we did not nor ever were going to kill a chicken. The chicken was not harmed. It fell asleep. Yep, it was okay. And the comment he made about the butcher was a joke. Sorry if it offended some, it wasn’t intended too.

He didn’t really hypnotize a chicken. Of course not. But the fact that he thought he had…and still thinks he did…is amusing. At least to me. But he is my kid :). I will say…the chicken seemed to go to sleep. As in, calm. It was weird.

Did you know today is National Pie Day?? Well…let’s celebrate with a pie party!

How do you celebrate a Saturday night at my house? With a pie party of course!! When you have the opportunity to try Mrs. Smith’s Signature Deep Dish pies you do it up right! With candlelight, linens, wine, and coffee. And of course…dressing up!!

Mrs. Smith’s Signature Deep Dish pies come in Apple with Caramel Sauce, Cherry with Butter Fudge Sauce, Peach with Cream Cheese Icing, and Pumpkin with Cream Cheese Icing. You seriously aren’t hurting for options and deliciousness! The best part…rather then the hour you need to bake other ready-made pies…these are ready in 30 minutes! Yes please! This means your 14 year old can get the Pie Party ready while you finish a little boy’s bedroom remodel!

Apple pie is lonely right now. Adding caramel sauce…yum! And of course, we have little washi tape flags to help identify the pies (although, I like the taste and identify method best!)

Katie brilliantly set the table. You have to have twinkle lights and candles for a Pie Party! She used buttons as if they were confetti (brilliant move, if you ask me!), lace placemats, and fancy dishes. She thought the pies should be the stars. Smart cookie…that one!

The best way to have a party? Dressed up of course! We all got into full dress-up mode and chanelled our inner “costume”. I love Katie’s vintage hat! And Levi even put on a tie. Cuteness!

They were smiling and laughing together. Discussing Doctor Who. I plan on using this picture against them whenever they claim they don’t like each other. As if.

How about those outfits? Yeah baby! It’s fun to have a reason to go into full dress-up mode…and a Pie Party is a perfect reason!!

Cheers to Mrs. Smith’s for giving us a reason to have a Pie Party!! We had a blast!

We recommend the Apple pie and the Peach pie for the best taste combination options…

You can find Mrs. Smith on Facebook or Pinterest. Or in my home. At my Pie Party. Next time you are all invited! It’s a BYOP party!

I am calling this a study space because…well, I don’t really know WHAT to call it?!? This is my 14 year old’s space. We just put the finishing touches on it over the weekend and it’s ready to go for her freshman year. Ack…can you believe I’m that old? Sigh, I need a nap.

Anyways…because my kids do their charter school from home they need good-sized space to organize, spread out, and spend vast hours of the day in. Levi’s space is a giant counter space (you can see that HERE) with bright colors and fun patterns. But, Katie isn’t really into the monster patterns and primary colors. She likes twinkle lights, old books, and vintage. Thankfully…I have lot’s of that around this house!

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